Preview

This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
346 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona
Although it seems as though he likes Thomas by the end of the story, Victor in fact still harbors certain feelings of dislike and contempt towards Thomas. Almost at the finish of the story “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, Sherman Alexie portrays Victor as being kind and friendly to Thomas. Victor feels the urge that he owes something to Thomas and ends up offering to Mr. Builds-the-Fire the precious ash remains of his recently deceased father. As kind as he was to do that, Victor immediately afterwards talks to Thomas in an underlying mean way. Thomas graciously turns down Victor’s offer, and in the process relates a simile comparing Victor’s father to a salmon. Although throughout the story Victor seems appreciative of Thomas’
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Al in Phoenix
    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Al in Phoenix

    In Dagoberto Gilb’s story “Al in Phoenix” the narrator feels that Al is treating him unfairly. The narrator believes that Al thinks of him as a guy that is living loose and not bothering to get a job (Gilb 75-81). The narrator being the inductive thinker thought that Al was being unfair to him because of the way he was being treated. Al on the other hand, uses deductive thinker because he just based his facts about the truth. Al based that the only reason the narrator is at the garage getting his car fixed was because of it having problems and probably because he had the image of the narrator of being a living loose type of person that worries about every single little thing.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Comparing The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven
    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven

    When the movie first started a fire was occurring and a baby was being thrown out a window. The baby was Thomas. Victor’s dad had seen him and decided to catch him. In the book, however, it didn’t speak of much of Thomas at a young age. The only thing that was expressed was Victor was mean to him and that he always told stories.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Journey In Sherman Alexie's Film Smoke Signals
    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page

    Journey In Sherman Alexie's Film Smoke Signals

    5-Later, Thomas talks about all the good things that Victor's father had done for him.…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona
    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona

    “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, is a story that focuses on the relationship between two Native American men, Victor and Thomas Builds-The-Fire, who have grown up together one the Spokane Indian Reservation. The leading cause of the central action of the story was the death of Victor’s father in Phoenix, Arizona. Having just lost his job and unable to financially travel alone with the one hundred dollars given to him by the Tribal Council, Victor happens to run into Thomas Builds-The-Fire who offers to lend him the money as long as he allows him to go along. The men take the journey to Phoenix to claim Victor’s father’s savings and ashes. Upon arrival, they both go inside of the father’s trailer where Victor finds a photo album…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Analysis
    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Analysis

    For Victor to say Phoenix, Arizona can draw a lot of emotion. His father had passed away from a heart attack and wasn't found until a week later. He hadn't seen his father for many years. The only communication was by phone maybe once or twice. On top of that, Victor had lost his job at the BIA. He was not financially stable to go to Phoenix to pick up his dad so he contacted the Tribal Affairs. The council was only allowed to provide him with a check of one hundred dollars, but that wasnt enough to make it to Phoenix. While at the Tribal Affairs, he runs into a childhood friend Thomas Builds-the-Fire talking to himself near the magazine rack. This was nothing new because Thomas was known as a storyteller nobody listened to. He always had something to say. When they were younger while Victor's father still lived with the family, Thomas had told a story: “Your father’s heart is weak. He is afraid of his own family. He is afraid of you.” Thomas said his condolences to Victor about his father and offered to help pay the expenses for the Phoenix trip only if Victor allowed Thomas to go. It took thinking time but he accepted the offer.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Smoke Signals Review
    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Smoke Signals Review

    The movie began with the incident of the Thomas’ parents’ death. It was the fourth of July and his parents had a party and everyone was either drunk of asleep. Victor’s father Arnold walked around drunk with a sparkler and threw it in the kitchen. Everything quickly caught on fire and Thomas was thrown out the window where he was caught by Arnold. It quickly fast forwards to where Thomas had grown up to be a skinny, story-telling nerd and Victor a buff Indian. Constant flashbacks of Victor’s childhood are shown during the movie. Victor’s father was an angry drunk and would always beat him and his mother. One day, his mother decided to sober up for him and that was also the same time his father left. Victor then found out that his father had passed away in Phoenix, Arizona, thus began his journey with Thomas and the discovery of why his father really left. On his journey, he met a trailer mate of his dad’s named Suzy, who told him stories that his dad had told her about him. She revealed to him about the innocent mistake his father had made by killing Thomas’ parents in the fire. She also encouraged him to stop being stubborn and try to find something valuable in his father’s trailer. Throughout their journey, Thomas and Victor’s relation hadn’t improved until they got into a car accident in which the white man blames them for the incident. Victor was also charged with assault after the accident, but it was dropped because there wasn’t much of a case. In the end, he found the real reason to why his father left and is thankful for Thomas.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Conflict Essay
    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Conflict Essay

    The conflict that one Native American Indian must face on his quest to retrieve his father's bearings. Although not every conflict has an immediate solution, Sherman Alexie does maintain a sense of hopefulness and the possibility of a new beginning. Victor is indeed a man of many conflicts. Victor's self-bitterness partially stems from the deeply embedded conflict that many Native Americans face in this modern day American society. It is merely common in society for people to misplace their anger on someone else; especially someone perceived as weaker. It seems that…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alone On The Hilltop
    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Alone On The Hilltop

    The first two stages of life are childhood and adolescence. Victor and Thomas went through both changes in the movie ¨Smoke signals¨. In the movie Victor's father was an alcoholic, this made Victor's mom very mad and she told him that he can't keep using all the money. Victor’s childhood stage was hard because his father had left him and his mother all alone. Victor looked up to his father very much. In the scene his father left Victor came running out of the house yelling “don't leave dad, don't leave.” This shows that victor loved his father and trust in him. Another example of childhood from the movie was the fire on fourth of july. The fire was a big part of victor's and Thomas life because his father is the one started the fire that killed thomas family.…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Cormac Mccarthy Title The Road
    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cormac Mccarthy Title The Road

    So he tells the boy to carry the symbolic fire that he possesses within himself. The fire represents human kindness, beliefs, and morals which the man wants the boy to retain as a…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay Comparing Frankenstein 'And Blade Runner'
    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay Comparing Frankenstein 'And Blade Runner'

    * Victor earns disregard and disdain through his insufferable egotism and unprincipled and reckless judgement. Time and time again, he fails to take responsibility for his own actions, ushering in destruction as a consequence of personal inadequacy. In thinking that he could become Godlike and bestow life, he was doomed to spend his final months of life suffering the extremity of grief and social isolation.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Essay
    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Essay

    The theme of a story is woven all the way through the story, and the characters' actions, interactions, and motivations. This is all reflected in the friendship between Victor and Thomas and the heritage between modern man and tradition Native Americans. Thomas proposes to lend Victor the money he needed after only receiving 100 dollars from the Indian counsel due to lack of funds. That money that Thomas gave Victor was a mark of true friendship. He gave it without expecting anything in return except to be part of the trip to Phoenix. Even thought they have not been friends since they were teenagers, their journey to Arizona helps Victor realize Thomas would later reveal in the story, the reason for him giving Victor the money was that he had given his word to Victor’s father that he would “watch out” for him. Thomas was being a true friend as he had always done such as the incident with the wasp nest when Thomas saved Victor. However, in the end Victor knows that he and Thomas will not be friends after the trip because of how other people perceive Thomas. At the end of the story Victor r54offers half of his father’s ashes to show Thomas that he is grateful for Thomas’…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fistfight In Heaven
    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fistfight In Heaven

    Victor almost seems to admire Thomas, because Thomas doesn’t care what other people think about him. Although Victor wants to escape from the standards of the white people, he still conforms to their culture because he is afraid of ridicule. However, Thomas doesn’t let other peoples’ opinions affect him, and Victor is jealous of his nonchalant attitude towards other people. “Everyone has dreams about flying. Thomas flew,” (70). Thomas has confidence in himself, which is something that most everyone else in the reservation seems to lack. When Victor sees Thomas’s confidence, he begins avoiding Thomas, perhaps because of jealousy, or possibly because he is afraid of what other people might think about Victor if they see him with Thomas. When Thomas and Victor are returning to Spokane Reservation in “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” Thomas says, “I know you aren’t going to treat me any differently than before. Your friends would give me too much shit about it,” (74). Victor is too caught up in the modern world to possibly understand the importance of Thomas’s stories, and Thomas understands Victor’s limitations. However, at the end of “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” Victor agrees to listen to one of Thomas’s stories just once. This symbolizes Victor’s step backwards towards the traditions and stories of Native Americans in the…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Smoke Signals
    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Smoke Signals

    The relationship between Victor and Thomas in the movie Smoke Signals is what gives the stories that Sherman Alexie weave they're meaning. As the story goes on so does the relationship from acquaintances, to veritable enemies, to close friends. This shifting in association gives the movie a very heartwarming effect. It showed that these young Indian boys overcame the obstacles that had separated them, and while doing this became close friends. In the opening scene we are exposed to how Thomas' family becomes indebted to Victor's. Victor’s father rescued Thomas from the burning building that killed his parents. We are not made aware of the fact that Victor's father had in fact started the fire as well. Leaving this detail unknown until the end of the movie allows everyone the chance to come to their own conclusions about Victor's father, before his personality is really showed by his neighbor. During the movie, Thomas tried to befriend Victor. The other children consider Thomas a "dork" and Victor did not speak to him very much. The scene after Victor's father left, where Victor beats Thomas into oblivion for making a rude remark about Victor's dad and the scene on the basketball court shows us this feeling of annoyance that Victor holds about Thomas. For unknown reasons, however, Thomas continued to try to befriend Victor. Thomas…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein: Moral Delusion
    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Frankenstein: Moral Delusion

    As Victor prepares to “bestow animation upon lifeless matter," he begins to defy nature and reality. He begins to raid morgues and graveyards, "Dabbling among the unhallowed damps of the grave ... collecting bones from charnel-houses and disturbing... the tremendous secrets of the human frame. ... The dissecting room and slaughter-house furnished many of my materials", starts his slow descent into madness and insanity. Even though he states that "Often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation," he continues to expose himself to the wretchedness of dead matter. His corruption, generated by his pride and ego, he gets ahead of himself, claiming "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs," Victor soon reaps the bitter fruits of his labor.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein Journal Entry
    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Frankenstein Journal Entry

    This is a quote by Victor after the monster has killed everything that was important to him, leaving him alone and in the same situation as the monster as opposed to the beginning of the book when Victor knew no evil and was as happy as one can be. It also describes his transition into total misery and loneliness from his former ambitious and adventurous self.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics